Media Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2016 Contact: Edward Wilensky (619) 232-7636 [email protected] Shiley dētour Series Continues with The Tragedy of Carmen (La Tragédie de Carmen) Opens March 10, 2017 with additional performances on March 11, and March 12 (matinee) The story and music of Bizet’s beloved opera Carmen distilled into a powerful 90-minute opera. Marks the Company debut of mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell as Carmen San Diego, CA – San Diego Opera’s Shiley dētour Series continues on Friday, March 10, 2017 at the Balboa Theater with The Tragedy of Carmen, Peter Brook’s adaptation of Bizet’s beloved opera Carmen. Taking the music, plot, drama, and emotion from the original classic, this distilled 90-minute chamber opera serves as a perfect introduction to the art form. Tickets start at just $20. Additional performances are Saturday, March 11 at 7 PM and Sunday, March 12 at 2 PM. The Tragedy of Carmen tells the story of the soldier Don José who leaves his sweetheart Micaëla for the fiery and passionate Carmen. Carmen, however, has her eyes on the swaggering bullfighter Escamillo and jealously erupts that threatens to swallow them all. Four new principal singers make Company debuts with San Diego Opera for these performances. American mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell sings the role Carmen. She is joined by Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer as Don José. Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman sings Micaëla and American bass-baritone Ryan Kuster round out the cast. Stage director Alexander Gedeon makes his house debut staging the production and conductor Christopher Rountree, in his Company debut, leads the orchestra from the podium. This is a new production, created specifically for these performances at the Balboa Theatre. These are the Company’s first performances of The Tragedy of Carmen. The opera will be performed in French with English translations projected above the stage. 1 The Tragedy of Carmen will have a radio broadcast on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 8 PM on KPBS radio, 89.5 FM (97.7 FM Calexico) and online at www.kpbs.org Pre-production photos can be found online at: https://sandiegoopera.smugmug.com/2016-2017-Preproduction The Cast Peabody Southwell, Carmen San Diego Opera debut. American mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell’s recent engagements include La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, the Third Lady in The Magic Flute, and Flora for Los Angeles Opera, principal singer for Los Angeles Opera/Beth Morrison Project’s Anatomy Theatre, Juno and Ino in Semele, and the title role of Agrippina for Opera Omaha, Liederabend 21c (with Los Angeles Philharmonic/Beth Morrison Projects), the title role in La Tragèdie de Carmen for Des Moines Metro Opera, soloist in Pulcinella for San Francisco Symphony, Omar in John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, and the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen for Long Beach Opera, Anna in Die sieben Todsünden for Central City Opera, The Woman in Green in Peer Gynt for San Francisco Symphony, and the title role in María de Buenos Aires with Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater. She is a two-time Los Angeles district winner and regional finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, a winner of the Kent Atwater Concerto Competition, a Lotte Lenya Competition finalist and was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for May 2014. She is also an actress and designer. Adrian Kramer, Don José San Diego Opera Debut. Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer has appeared in opera and concert with many excellent theatres including the Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Omaha, Juilliard Opera Center, The Kimmel Center in conjunction with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Curtis Opera Theater, Castleton Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cal Performances, Opera 5, Tapestry Opera, Saskatoon Opera, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, New York Festival of Song, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Toronto Chamber Choir, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Kingston Symphony, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Talisker Players, Off Centre Music Salon at the Glenn Gould Studio, and the Crear Institute with Malcolm Martineau. Last summer, he returned to the Santa Fe Opera to perform Borsa in Rigoletto, Second Nazarene in Salome, and created the role of Owen’s Son in the world premiere of Cold Mountain. He is a past grand prize winner of the Louis Quilico Competition, The Campbell Wachter Memorial Award for Singers from the Santa Fe Opera and The Juilliard Honors Recital Competition, as well as being the recipient of numerous grants, including a Chalmers Professional Development Grant from the Ontario Arts Council and support from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation for Young Canadian Opera Singers. Andriana Chuchman, Micaëla San Diego Opera debut. Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman notable appearances include Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at Los Angeles Opera, Magnolia in Show Boat at The Dallas Opera, Boonyi in Shalimar the Clown at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Manitoba Opera, Handel's Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and Orff's Carmina Burana and the world premiere of Larysa Kuzmenko's Golden Harvest with the Winnipeg Symphony. Other recent engagements include Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann for Canadian Opera Company, Adina in The Elixir of Love, Miranda in The Enchanted Island, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera, Gretel on the Glyndebourne Festival Tour, Magnolia at the Washington National Opera, Guinevere in Camelot at the Glimmerglass Festival, Yum-Yum in The 2 Mikado, Cleopatra in Julius Caesar, Susanna, and staged performances of Carmina Burana at Michigan Opera Theater, Minka in Le Roi le Malgra at the Bard Music Festival, Irma in Louise at the Spoleto Festival USA, and Alinda in Giasone and Dorinda in Orlando at the Chicago Opera Theater. A graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ms. Chuchman has appeared on the opera company's mainstage as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Yum-Yum, Valencienne, and in their productions of Die Frau ohne Shatten and Manon. She also sang student matinee performances of The Elixir of Love and The Marriage of Figaro. Also a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Ms. Chuchman appeared as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro, Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto, and as Blanche in excerpts of Dialogues of the Carmelites and Clorinda in excerpts Cinderella. Ryan Kuster, Escamillo San Diego Opera debut. American bass-baritone Ryan recent appearances include Escamillo with Virginia Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Grand Rapids, Knoxville Opera, and Arizona Opera. Other notable engagements include Angelotti in Tosca with The Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Madison Opera, Masetto in Don Giovanni at Arizona Opera and Cincinnati Opera, the title role of Don Giovanni for Opera Memphis, Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro with On Site Opera, Alidoro in Cinderella with Opera Saratoga, Ceprano in Rigoletto with San Francisco Opera, and St. Matthew Passion with Boulder Philharmonic. Chris Rountree, Conductor San Diego Opera debut. Chris Rountree is the founder, conductor and creative director of the L.A. chamber orchestra wild Up. wild Up started in 2010 with a vision of a world-class orchestra that creates visceral, provocative experiences that are unmoored from classical traditions. Recent appearances include debuts with Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Opera and Atlanta Opera, and returns to the Music Academy of the West and the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox series. He conducted the Interlochen World Youth Orchestra on the New York Philharmonic’s 2016 Biennial, joined Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner with wild Up at the Laguna Beach Music Festival, and conducted Diavolo’s new show “L’Espace du Temps: Glass, Adams, and Salonen.” As a composer, his recent premieres and commissions include a new piece for The Crossing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a re-orchestration of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Foreign Bodies, a choral work for Bjork’s choir Graduale Nobili in Reykjavik, and a piece for Jennifer Koh on the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial. He founded an education intensive with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, continued an education partnership at the Colburn School, and taught “Creativity and Consciousness” at Bard College’s Longy School. He joined the production company Chromatic, conducted Opera Omaha performing John Adams’ A Flowering Tree, debuted on the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox series, and started a three-year stint as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has curated and created events for contemporary art institutions including the Getty Museum, MCA Denver, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and UCLA’s Hammer Museum, where a long-running wild Up residency brought the group to national prominence. Alexander Gedeon, Stage Director San Diego Opera debut. As a recording and performance artist, Alexander created Trick & the Heartstrings, a New York punk-funk trio that released music on the Warner Bros subsidiary 679 in the UK. Alexander composed all of the music and created the choreography for what London's NME magazine described as "a supertight howl of righteous rhythm and blues with jaw-dropping pop twists". Subsequently, he formed Yellow Alex, a funk/disco ensemble that released music on the Collective Sounds label (Sony RED), was an LA/KCRW pick of the month, and was on the featured iTunes playlist for Apple stores worldwide. In 2016, he made his opera debut as Assistant Director for the world premiere of David Lang's anatomy theater, presented by LA Opera's Off-Grand series. Alexander will follow the production to New York this winter for the east coast premiere at BRIC in Brooklyn.